Cooks and farmers, a necessary connection
Remembering when: Jaffrey chef on his lifelong relationship with food
By Aylmer H Given III
Printed in the Monadnock Ledger Transcript, July 15, 2014Available online here

Chef Aylmer from Summerhill Assisted Living in Peterborough, who is a huge local food and Monadnock Menus supporter, shared this essay with the Monadnock Ledger-Transcript. We need to strengthen the connections between cooks and farmers as Aylmer says in order to grow a vibrant local food economy in the Monadnock Region. Thank you Chef Aylmer for your eloquent words and your support of our area farmers and producers! We need more champions like you!

Check out the recent article in Parent Express about the growth of Farm to School programs in the Cheshire County, NH and Windham County, VT region. Monadnock Menus and Windham Farm and Food are working hard to make it easier for our local schools to access fresh, local produce and other local food products through our aggregation and delivery services. You can find out more about our producers and how to become involved by visiting our website at www.monadnockmenus.org. Now is the time to join as more fresh fruits and vegetables become available each week.

It’s 2014! Where has the time gone? No posts lately as we have been focusing efforts on our online marketplace and deliveries. You will find all the delicious Monadnock Menus products and amazing local producers here at the online marketplace. We’ve been selling our great products in Cheshire County through the marketplace since October 2012.

Please contact Monadnock Menus Coordinator, Sara Lovitz, at coordinator @ monadnockmenus.org if you have any questions or would like to sign up as a buyer or producer. Thanks for checking out this blog, which is a good historical record of the beginnings of Monadnock Menus, thanks to a dedicated group of volunteers. You can also read more about many of Monadnock Menus farmers and producers.

Sharlene, Monadnock Menus Coordinator, was at MFCC’s Monadnock Matchmaker at Stonewall Farm last Wednesday signing up farms and buyers interested in using the service. The event put busy food system professionals in the same room to establish business relationships so food produced here can more easily end up on all of our plates.

During a panel discussion including Michael Faber, the Manager of the Monadnock Food Co-op and Beth Hodge of Echo Farm Puddings, professionals shared challenges they have faced and advice on how to develop effective, mutually beneficial working relationships. Marianne Forshee, a beginning farmer found the panel most useful, while Fenella Levick of Monadnock Berries was looking for new wholesale buyers for fruit.

“Farmers’ markets are less and less lucrative [because of market saturation], what we need is reliable buyers who take the risk and high labor costs out of selling. At market if it rains I don’t sell anything and still pay someone to stand around, and the fruit doesn’t last long so we might have to get rid of it. If I sell to the County Jail or Neighbor Made, if it rains they still use our fruit. They pay less, but I’m not paying anyone to stand there”

Every business has different needs, it is our hope that by providing services like Monadnock Menus and the Monadnock Matchmaker Event we can help facilitate the connections that allow Farms like Monadnock Berries, retail outlets like the Great River Food Coop, restaurants like The Works, Distributors like Black River Produce, schools like Northfield Mt Hermon, value added producers like Merrymeeting Farm and facilities like Neighbor Made to provide local food for the plates of the passionate consumers of our region 365 days a year!

“The people are demanding local food, and it’s only going to get worse.” – John Ayer, Brattleboro High & Middle Schools (who is passionate about local enough that in the fall he buys all the schools’ produce locally except bananas and oranges!)

Here is the NH Farm to School Report examining farm to school purchasing over the last three years in NH. It highlights both barriers and successes, and the undeniable rise in direct and distributed local farm-to-school purchasing!

Of course, each producer will have different items to offer at various times throughout the season and we are not too far off from the end of the New England harvest season for this year. However, products like Elm City Bagels, Echo Farm Puddings, Orchard Hill Breadwork and Commonwealth Dairy Yogurt will enable us to work out any logistical issues that arise over the winter months. And the produce farms are already able to plan their planting and harvest for next season with this added demand in mind so we can scale up in the spring.

Watch this space to find out more about local food in schools and institutions near you!